Friday, June 29, 2012

Muhahahahahahahahaha....oh hi. Sorry for that. This post was a while in the making, and it pleases me much to now share with you one of my pride and joys.

NOT just because I play Cryx (for Privateer Press tabletop game Warmachine), but because this project had me in my most crazy creative in a while. When I conceived this project I went nights dreaming of it and how to pull it off, you see it is more than just a regular battle engine. More than just a model. More than....ok well I will let the pics speak for themselves.

As you can see from the 'Frosted Mini' post, he did turn out rather nicely. The basing detail really adds to this piece making it not only a model that matches the rest of the army, but doubles as a nice display piece as well.

Now here is the kicker, the geniusness of my madness: It. Lights. UP! Damn straight I just said that. I will say it again!

IT
LIGHTS
UP!

Oh so tricky. Many a crazy nights here. How you ask? I am indeed a madman. See the soul coming out of the body? it has a spring on the bottom, press down to turn on or off the lights. There are 3 of them in this bad boy. The trickiest part was hiding the battery and switch. I actually had to drill holes in the base for the switch. the wires were soldered underneath the base.

And the battery? See the little Stitch Thrall (undead with the sack) in the back? If you look close you notice that part of the base looks odd? That is where the battery is hidden. Underneath the base. The Thrall is attached to this piece which can be removed to replace the battery. Now that was tricky. I had to break apart the base and perfectly realign and reassemble so it is still playable.

I am happy to share this piece with you, hope you liked it. Now onto more pic taking and painting. until next time...

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Hello again readers and browsers! Its been a while, I know. I have been busy lately painting up more of my Cryx army for a tournament happing soon. Out of all the models I own for Warmachine, Cryx is the largest with just about 300 models! Out of them, less than half are fully painted and ready to go. So I set out to paint what I can this past month and I ran into an issue when working on one of the big ones, the Cryx battle engine, the Wraith Engine!

Hence the title, Frosted Terror! It may have happened to you, or it may some day and I am here to help you out. You just finished painting a beautiful miniature, you let the paint dry, and you begin to apply sealer. Whatever type of sealer you use, you notice that upon drying something bad, no terrible, no no, UNSPEAKABLE has happened! The beautiful paint job is now covered over in a frosting grey haze!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

All those hours, all that detail, all that damned frost! What to do, where to turn? Right here friends, I am with you and I will help you through this. First, dont panic. Frosting can occur with many variables, the most common being the weather. Humidity can cause the sealer to set before it is completely dry causing this fog up, or it could be an old bottle/can of sealer, or just a bad batch. Just follows these steps and you will be back to praising the light and the fact that you came across this.

STEP 1: DONT PANIC!

So its a hugh deal, but easily fixable. After this horrendous finding, breath and say "I can fix this". Dont touch the miniature and set it aside for 24 hrs to allow the sealer to completely set in. usually 12hrs will do, but better safe than sorry.

STEP 2: Cooking up the Miniature.

Ingredients to use after the miniature has sat for a while. Olive Oil and water. Thats it. You dont even need that much of the olive oil either, Just a dab. Wash the entire miniature with Olive Oil, just like you are adding an ink wash. Use the water to help spread it around all over the frosted areas. You will be able to tell where you need to go over if you missed any spots.

STEP 3: Drying Time

So you can see here in this shot, the miniature is washed with the Olive Oil and water. This is what it looks like when drying. Make sure to wash off excess Olive Oil. Too much may not let paint stick to it again. Or even your re-sealer.

STEP 4: RE-SEAL

Now if you want to leave the miniature all shinny, you can. The texture may feel weird, but that is up to you. IF you decide to re-seal, I suggest you wait another 24hrs AFTER the Oil wash to apply any type of sealer. In this pic here I did re-seal with Testors Dullcoat spray. I did have to wait for a nice day (no humidity) to help ensure that no frosting would take place again.

STEP 5: Enjoy!

And there you have it! The beautiful miniature brought back to its former glory! Sure it took time to get it back, but its worth it. I didnt have to re-paint, or worse yet strip the already painted model. Life realigned itself and everything was good again. Now I can continue on painting more!

Next time I update, hopefully I will have this model completely finished and more along with it. Until then remember: Its not the heat, its the humidity!